Sometimes a little pond fishing is just what the doctor ordered...

Grabbed a couple of hours to work on the frames today.  The plans are for a 14' Canadian, from Spira International.  As others have observed, the plans come a little light on details, but all of the necessary information is there to calculate everything that's needed.  A quick search for an online trig calculator, and I was off to the races!

After the math was…

Edith had her debutante party today. She's way fast, and very easy to right. Let's hope I get to do lots of the former and not too much of the latter.

Here's a video:

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Other than putting her name on her bow, Edith is pretty much done as of midnight tonight. Although there are a few days of tinkering and accessorizing left, Edith really came together this afternoon/evening. Pretty exciting. I'll fiddle around with her tomorrow and Sunday we will take her out to the lake for the big experiment. Does she really float? Will she stay right-side-up? I'll let you know. Anyhow, here she is. Lots more pictures and stories at…

The strong back is up!  It has been a battle to carve out even a little time to get this started, but I finally buckled down and did a quick trip to pick up some lumber.  I was happy and surprised to find that Lowe's had some good looking select DF in 1x4, so I sorted through those and brought home about 72ft for the frames.  That means I stand a reasonable chance of putting this strong back to its intended use, although not for the rest of this weekend or next week.  Hoping to put aside…

I recently finished my wooden dorie that I fitted the Yamaha Jet…

Finally, after much talk and many questions I know have a camera and can post some pics about everything I have been talking about. So here it is, the beginning of my build of Bob Prichett's Classic Rouge River Dory using the plans in Roger Fletcher's Drift Boats and River Dories.  I started from the VERY beginning... Insulating and drywalling the garage! Then came the…

I screwed Edith's decks on today. She really looks a lot like old Julius, with one big difference: a foot-and-a-half longer and nearly a foot narrower. Hugely significant numbers. It makes me realize how much Holmstrom was looking at the Galloway boats for inspiration and the Oregon boats for common sense and stability. Buzz really was a genius.

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well, in spite of myself, the sides are on and I'm getting ready for the bottom.   Question as I evaluate bottom solutions.  If using UHMW sheet, is this glued on the plywood and then screwed at once with the plywood or applied after the plywood is glued,…

Greetings all,

Building my first boat, a slightly modified hankinson 14' drift boat.  quick question on hardware. Are Brass screws usable? I know they're a bit soft, but workable if I countersink correctly. Nobody around here stocks much in the way of bronze and they all seem to be perrenially out of the stainless sizes I need.

Dave Barnes…

Here is a quandary I just posted on my blog (fretwaterlines.blogspot.com)

Ten years ago when we built the Julius, a replica of Buzz Holmstrom's beautiful, home-built 1937 expedition boat, Roger Fletcher and I ran into some serious design issues. As it turned out we had been trying to reconcile two set of photographs of the original boat, and the second set, I finally realized, had been taken after a subsequent owner had sawed two feet off the stern. Little wonder that our hull…

Well, after a few well-deserved setbacks, we riveted the final strake onto the Edith yesterday, and will roll her right-side up in an hour or two. She sure is cute--I fear all the boy boats will be hitting relentlessly on her. Here are a couple shots. Lots more on fretwaterlines.blogspot.com

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Crystal Rapid in Grand Canyon gave the Ziz her first big hit.  We went flying into the 2nd fang on the left side of Crystal with visions of exploding dories.  Turns out the Ziz can take one on the chin and keep on grinning. Actually this pic looks like more of a frownie face.

The boat hit directly on the gunwale but the force rippled through the hull.  As luck would…

I've had a blast tearing apart the damaged areas of the boat.  Looking at the shattered wood, figurin' and fussing. Here are some pics of the process.

Round one of peeling out the damaged wood.  The hit was about 1/4 inch in front of the sternmost thwart.  Good thing too! Otherwise this would be a picture of me sticking my head through the hole.…

The bow is obviously a disaster, as is the transom.  There are a…